New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed death penalty for two women of Kolhapur in Maharashtra for kidnapping 13 children below five years and killing nine of them.

A Bench of Justices K.G. Balakrishnan and G.P. Mathur said, "in some cases, bodies could not be found, and in some cases bodies could be traced out. Going by the details of the case, we find no mitigating circumstances in favour of the appellant, except for the fact that they are women."

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Mr. Justice Balakrishnan said, "the nature of the crime and the systematic way in which each child was kidnapped and killed amply demonstrates the depravity of the mind of the appellants.

"These appellants indulged in criminal activities for a very long period and continued them till the police caught them. They very cleverly executed their plans of kidnapping the children and the moment they were no longer useful, they killed them and threw the bodies at some deserted place." The Bench was of the view that the women had been a menace to society. The people of the locality were completely horrified and they could not even send their children to schools. The women were not committing these crimes under any compulsion but they took it very casually and killed children, least bothered about the little ones lives or the agony of their parents.

The Bench said, "we have carefully considered the whole aspects of the case and are also alive to the new trends in the sentencing system in criminology. We do not think that these appellants are likely to be reformed. We confirm the conviction and also the death penalty imposed on them.

"The stay of execution of the capital punishment imposed on them shall stand vacated and the authorities are directed to take such further steps as are necessary to carry out the execution of capital punishment imposed on them."

Renuka Bai alias Rinku, sister Seema and mother Anjanabai allegedly committed a series of offences during 1990 to 1996. Their modus operandi was to kidnap infants and children below the age of five and commit pocket picking and other petty offences. Since they committed the offences with children in their arms, they were let off most of the time. Subsequently, they made the children commit petty offences. And when they decided that the children were not useful they killed them.

As the mother died in 1997, the trial court found the two women guilty of kidnapping 13 children. Though nine were killed, the charge of murder could be proved only in respect of five. They were awarded death sentence and the High Court had confirmed the sentence.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail